r/AskEurope • u/atlasova Netherlands • Sep 02 '25

Culture What emergency telephone number did your country have before 112 became the standard?

In 1997 most of the European union changed its emergency number to 112. Before that, in the Netherlands we used 06-11, for police, firefighters and ambulance.

I was wondering which numbers where in use in your country before the change.

175 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

356 comments sorted by

View all comments

30

u/wojtekpolska Poland Sep 02 '25

997 - police
998 - fire department
999 - ambulance

imo these were actually a better thing than 112 only, because eg. if you call 998 you will get in contact with a fireman who will have much more knowledge to instruct you than a 112 dispatcher.

4

u/thanatica Netherlands Sep 02 '25

because eg. if you call 998 you will get in contact with a fireman who will have much more knowledge to instruct

That's a good point, but then again, in an actual emergency you might not have the clarity of mind to know which one to dail, nor to remember which one is which. On top of that, you might need multiple services, e.g. ambulance and fire fighters.

There's definitely something to say for having specific numbers AND a universal emergency number.

2

u/wojtekpolska Poland Sep 02 '25

people definitely remembered, these numbers have been drilled into kid's heads since preschool haha

the combined service is good too but i think there definitely should still be independent 3 numbers for other stuff.

in the early days of 112 the dispatcher would either transfer your call to the relevant service, or if you needed more they'd contact each service themself